After spending about 2 hours shivering on my back deck, I can finally say
with confidence that there is a female Calliope Hummer coming to my feeders.
She is also terrorizing the Black-chinned females who only want to share.

Susan and I think we had a male Calliope in the spring years ago, but
neither of us are confident of that, so it’s “kind of” a new yard bird. And
we haven’t seen the Rufous in days.

Tom McCabe, Boise

Hi Larry and all

We are at 3000’ east of Viola. Mixed Ponderosa, Douglas-fir and native shrubs. Sorry about using the bander codes – we had to leave for Lewiston and I was writing email on my phone in the car where I usually have to retype lots of the words so I went for the shortcut.

The ebird list is at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48091255 but I haven’t loaded any photos yet.

I hope a few of these birds might be around tomorrow morning with the light rain this afternoon. It was really fun watching the bluebirds bathe and the white-breasted nuthatchs (a regular) interacting with the brown creeper (much less regular).

Nancy Miller

Viola, Idaho

From: LARRY ARNOLD
Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2018 1:46 PM
To: Nancy Miller
Cc: IBLE
Subject: Re: [IBLE] Mixed flock moving through

I love your use of banders’ codes, and I hope no one chastises you for it…. so much easier and quicker, especially while birding, and wow what a great list Nancy!!!

Google reports your elevation as 2,631 feet, very close to ours in west Boise, 2608 feet, who knew?

I prefer to use the codes as well, since I can’t type. I think of them as simply learning another field mark… very easy with a bit of practice! 😉

Larry

_____

From: “Nancy Miller nmiller@moscow.com [ible]” >
To: “Inland” >, “ible” >
Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2018 2:18:47 PM
Subject: [IBLE] Mixed flock moving through

Just had a mixed flock moving through our place east of Viola. Pretty amazing and I probably only saw half the species. They were in garden, hawthorn, bird bath, water feature, willows, etc. RCKI, OCWA RNSA WBNU BRCR WAVI SWTH AMRO YRWA. Watch for them moving thru with cold weather.
Nancy miller
Viola, ID
Sent from my iPhone

Birders,
With birds departing and/or going silent, I thought I should share a list of what Missy and I have encountered along the Greenbelt so far this month (below).
This also illustrates the new improved AOS phylogenetic order of things avian, which will take me a while to internalize.
Tom McCabe found us The Coot, which has otherwise been AWOL hereabouts, if you can imagine this!?
We are very happy to see the smokey days behind us (hope-hope), with daily high temperatures dropping a wee bit! Yeehah =)
Larry, Boise.

Species Name High Count
Canada Goose 175
Mute Swan 4
Wood Duck 45
Northern Shoveler 5
Mallard 100
Common Merganser 14
California Quail 50
Ring-necked Pheasant 1
Wild Turkey 10
Pied-billed Grebe 4
Western Grebe 1
Rock Pigeon 30
Eurasian Collared-Dove 15
White-winged Dove 1
Mourning Dove 35
Common Nighthawk 2
Common Poorwill 3
Black-chinned Hummingbird 20
Rufous Hummingbird 3
Calliope Hummingbird 1
hummingbird sp. 1
American Coot 1
Killdeer 10
Spotted Sandpiper 3
Ring-billed Gull 4
California Gull 10
gull sp. 15
Double-crested Cormorant 40
Great Blue Heron 5
Great Egret 4
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 15
Cooper’s Hawk 5
Sharp-shinned Hawl 3
Bald Eagle 1
Swainson’s Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 8
Western Screech-Owl 3
Great Horned Owl 2
Belted Kingfisher 14
Downy Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker 10
American Kestrel 3
Prairie Falcon 2
Western Wood-Pewee 3
Willow Flycatcher 10
Empidonax sp. 1
Say’s Phoebe 1
Western Kingbird 1
Eastern Kingbird 1
flycatcher sp. (Tyrannidae sp.) 1
Warbling Vireo 3
Black-billed Magpie 45
American Crow 4
Common Raven 2
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 5
Tree Swallow 6
Violet-green Swallow 40
Bank Swallow 5
Barn Swallow 100
Cliff Swallow 2
swallow sp. 80
Black-capped Chickadee 10
Red-breasted Nuthatch 5
Rock Wren 1
Canyon Wren 1
House Wren 6
Bewick’s Wren 3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 4
Gray Catbird 4
European Starling 120
Cedar Waxwing 15
House Finch 60
Lesser Goldfinch 3
American Goldfinch 15
Chipping Sparrow 4
Brewer’s Sparrow 2
Lark Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 12
Spotted Towhee 4
sparrow sp. 1
Yellow-breasted Chat 3
Bullock’s Oriole 1
Red-winged Blackbird 240
Brewer’s Blackbird 20
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
MacGillivray’s Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 2
American Redstart 1
Yellow Warbler 15
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Wilson’s Warbler 1
warbler sp. (Parulidae sp.) 2
Western Tanager 2
Black-headed Grosbeak 1
Lazuli Bunting 3
House Sparrow 10

—

I love your use of banders’ codes, and I hope no one chastises you for it…. so much easier and quicker, especially while birding, and wow what a great list Nancy!!!
Google reports your elevation as 2,631 feet, very close to ours in west Boise, 2608 feet, who knew?

I prefer to use the codes as well, since I can’t type. I think of them as simply learning another field mark… very easy with a bit of practice! 😉
Larry

—– Original Message —–

From: “Nancy Miller nmiller@moscow.com [ible]”
To: “Inland” , “ible”
Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2018 2:18:47 PM
Subject: [IBLE] Mixed flock moving through

Just had a mixed flock moving through our place east of Viola. Pretty amazing and I probably only saw half the species. They were in garden, hawthorn, bird bath, water feature, willows, etc. RCKI, OCWA RNSA WBNU BRCR WAVI SWTH AMRO YRWA. Watch for them moving thru with cold weather.
Nancy miller
Viola, ID
Sent from my iPhone

Just had a mixed flock moving through our place east of Viola. Pretty amazing and I probably only saw half the species. They were in garden, hawthorn, bird bath, water feature, willows, etc. RCKI, OCWA RNSA WBNU BRCR WAVI SWTH AMRO YRWA. Watch for them moving thru with cold weather.
Nancy miller
Viola, ID
Sent from my iPhone